updates

I haven't been adding books to the reading list if they're just novels I'm re-reading for class, and that's shortened the list considerably. But I did read March: A Novelover the weekend, and I'm still mulling it over. I like the genre, if that's what it is, of "the other side of the story": Wide Sargasso Sea was probably the first one I ever read, but there are many others now: Foe, Mary Reilly, etc. This one is the story of Mr. March, off being a chaplain in the Civil War while his four daughters are being Little Women. It's brutal--as, of course, the Civil War was. And it's got some gorgeous writing. And it deals with Marmee's anger, something I've often wondered about as I've re-read Little Women over the years. (Brooks doesn't come up with the same explanation I would, but that's ok.) Something bothered me about the novel, though, and I haven't quite put my finger on it. I've got to ponder for a while.